Last year saw the release of Battling Boy by Paul Pope, his longest comics work in years.
Perhaps unsurprisingly to many, it was a great read and one of my favourite
comics of 2013. The Rise of Aurora West
is co-written by J.T. Petty and Paul Pope and it is illustrated by David Rubin.
I can’t help but to compare this comic to Pope’s Battling Boy. I apologize for that but only briefly because the
comparison has helped me realize just how much The Rise of Aurora West effectively stands on its own, despite the obvious ties
to Battling Boy.
This comic is a prequel to Battling Boy. It’s set in the same universe (an alternate Earth) as
that story and most of the story takes place in the city of Arcopolis, a huge
city that has a problem with monsters. Science hero Haggard West, a combination
between Doc Savage, Indiana Jones and Batman, has made it his personal mission
to fight the monsters that wreak havoc in the city and spend their nights
kidnapping children. Though he plays a big role in the comic, the focus is
pretty clearly put on his daughter, Aurora West. She is training in the art of
monster slaying under her father. Many comparisons can be made between the
relationship Aurora has with her father and the one Battling Boy has with his
father but I do not want to spoil anything by saying too much. I will say that
Haggard, for all his faults, seems to be doing a better job of instilling
values in Aurora and raising her to be a resourceful young woman. He is teaching
his daughter how to be independent and work her way through any situation that
could arise. He puts a lot of value into preparation. The thematic developments
and character growths of Aurora West and Battling Boy are a delight in
contrasts and similarities.
While Battling Boy
lacked some of the more mature elements of Paul Pope’s previous comics, it
wasn’t exclusively for children and young teens. It was a very good example of
the wide appeal that great all-ages comics can have. At first I wasn’t sure I
would be able to say the same for The
Rise of Aurora West. I’m not sure how I developed this opinion but by the
time I finished reading, it was clear to me that it’s a great companion piece
to Battling Boy even though it has a
different tone. Young readers will certainly enjoy all of the monster hunting
action while adult readers will appreciate Aurora’s growth as a character. It’s
a book that offers quite a lot to enjoy and it’s clearly the work of skilled
creators.
Similarly to how I can’t help but compare the story of
both works, I can’t avoid comparing the art by David Rubin to the art of Paul
Pope. Much like the comic as a whole, Rubin’s art differentiated itself from
Pope’s art and the final result is a style that is occasionally similar to Pope’s
but ultimately something unique to Rubin. I wasn’t sure if Rubin was trying to
ape Pope’s style and after looking at sample artwork on Tumbler and on Rubin’s
blog, I came to the conclusion that he’s not intentionally trying to mimic Pope
for Aurora West but Pope is clearly
one of many influences on Rubin’s overall style. I also see the influence of
Rafael Grampa, particularly in Haggard’s large chin and in some of the smaller
details on clothing and hair. Funny enough, that’s also where I see a lot of
Pope’s influence, in the clothing and the hair. A lot of the technology feel
informed by Pope’s renderings in Battling
Boy and that just makes sense considering the close ties this comic has to
it. The facial expressions and the monster designs are entirely Rubin’s.
Initially, I felt bad that there was an artist who had to
follow Pope’s act. Pope isn’t just a master illustrator, he’s also an excellent
storyteller. He has what I would describe as a difficult style. You need to
learn how to read it before you can truly appreciate it. He gives the illusion
of an artist who is rushed and decided to publish sketches instead of finished
art but under that high-energy line work is a mountain of details to be
absorbed and cherished by the studious reader. He also uses a lot of heavy
inking and in the hands of a lesser artist that could easily be disastrous and
result in unreadable and muddy pages. Pope manages to make it all work without
putting the storytelling elements out of focus. Pope’s art can seem unpolished
and unaesthetic to readers who are unfamiliar with his work but I’ve come to
really admire and enjoy it.
Rubin is a different kind of artist. He’s much more expressive
than Pope and that works to his advantage in The Rise of Aurora West. He does try to capture the looseness and
the frenetic feel of Pope’s art but he doesn’t always succeed. His line work is
softer and rounder than Popes and there appears to be the influence of
cartoonist, not just skilled illustrators. There are several examples of very
good cartooning in this comic. I won’t be adding Rubin’s name to my list of
favourite comics artist just yet but he shows promise and I’m looking forward
to seeing more work by him. It’s commendable that Rubin took on the challenge
of illustrating Aurora West and I
hope that he receives the recognition for his efforts on this book. I also hope
that his future projects are packaged in a larger format as the 5 x 7 ½ pages
weren’t big enough to allow me to fully appreciate his artwork.
The writing was also quite good. Petty used more dialogue
than I’m used to seeing in a comic by Pope but I think that worked to his
advantage. One of my criticisms for Battling
Boy is that it felt light. There wasn’t as much story going on in those 200
pages than what I wanted. Pope usually writes comics that are dense, both in
story and in art. The small format of Battling
Boy and the quick story made for a lighter than usual read. Contrary to
that, The Rise of Aurora West packs
significantly more story in its 160 pages than its predecessor did. The
dialogue isn’t superfluous though. Petty uses this comic to tell the story of
Aurora. That might seem like a strange thing to say but it’s not uncommon for
the boy hero to overshadow his female counterpart. I was quite happy to
discover that most all the other elements of Battling Boy’s story were found in
this comic with the exception of Battling Boy himself and any other gods. This statement might
make me sound like a cynical comic book reader but female character often get
the short end of the stick and I’m just happy to say it’s not the case with
this comic.
As a prequel, it’s very effective because the focus is
truly on Aurora West. She learns about her mother and her father’s past. But we also learn a lot about Aurora
herself and the life she had growing up as the daughter of the hero of
Arcopolis. We also learn about her connection to Sadisto and his gang. I would
not have been surprised to discover that Pope and Petty used this comic to
further develop the world introduced in Battling
Boy and that’s exactly what they did but they did it through characters and
that made it feel more organic. There are a lot of things we do not know about
this world. Where did the monsters come from? Why are they attacking Arcopolis?
What are they doing with all of the children they’re kidnapping? We do not get
comprehensive answers to any of these questions but we do get a better
understanding of Aurora and Haggard’s relationship to both the monsters and the
city.
After finishing the first volume of Aurora West’s solo
adventure, I realised that the comic developed its own identity, separate from Battling Boy. It’s a big compliment but
the density of the story, compared to Battling
Boy, made it feel substantial and that was rewarding to me as a reader. The
character development, for Aurora and Haggard also contributes to making this
comic feel like an important addition to the story begun in Battling Boy. It’s not just a cash grab
comic. You also can’t argue with the cover price, $11.50 (Canadian) isn’t a bad
price for 160 pages of comics. Pope has said that he has plans to continue to
expand the Battling Boy series. It’s
unclear if he has any specific plans beyond the sequel to Aurora’s first solo
story or the sequel to Battling Boy
but if he does, it looks to me like First Second has a hit series on their
hands. I’m already looking forward to Battling
Boy: The Fall of the House of West.
My advance review
copy was provided by Tor.com. The Rise of Aurora West will be released on September 30, 2014.
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